SOUTH Korea's Hyundai Merchant Marine (HMM) announced that its container throughput at Busan Port in the first seven months of the year has reached a record 1.16 million TEU, an increase of 14.3 per cent over the same period last year.

HMM said the volume of exports and imports totalled 608,872 TEU, a 14.1 per cent increase year over year, while transit cargo volume rose 14.4 per cent from 473,341 TEU to 541,926 TEU.

HMM attributed the performance to its service and volume reliability, and the launch of Asia Europe Express (AEX) service last April, New York's Maritime Logistics Professional reported.

An HMM official said that since Hanjin shipping's collapse, HMM cargo processing at Busan port has hit a new record, exceeding 170,000 TEU per month in the three months from May to July. "For this year, we expect to handle more volume than 2 million TEU at Busan port," the official added.

Meanwhile, HMM's total handling volume at Busan port in 2017 reached 1.7 million TEU, which was much higher than its original target of 1.5 million TEU.